War Games
They’re awaiting the start of buzkashi. This is the country’s national sport, in which horsemen fight for control of a 50kg headless animal carcass – a heavy, unstable weight, and rather more difficult to manoeuvre than a rugby ball.
It’s Friday and the snowy plains north of the Afghan capital, Kabul are thronged with spectators.
With the Taliban gaining ground, any event that attracts a large crowd is a potential target for terrorism. Hired gunmen with Kalashnikovs slung over their shoulders keep watch as stallions are offloaded from flatbed trucks. Heads turn when Abdulhaq Chrik, one of the country’s top riders (or chapandaz), struts out on a fearsome horse, vapour snorting from its snout.
When the summer’s fighting dies down each year, Afghans turn their attention to buzkashi, which is a war of a different sort. The word means “goat-grabbing” in Persian, but these days calves are more commonly used, as they are heavier and less likely to be torn apart by the stomping
